Today's News

Bedford Science and Technology Center has a program that allows high school students, with an eye on becoming a teacher, to get some real experience before heading off to college. It’s called Teachers-for-Tomorrow.

A federal judge ruled last week that information gathered by members of the Bedford Genealogical Society for the past two decades should remain with the Bedford Museum instead of a newly-formed group that had filed a lawsuit earlier this year, seeking to take control of that information.

If it wasn’t clear to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last week, it should be now: Virginia vehemently opposes the transfer of convicted Bedford County double-murderer Jens Soering back to Germany.

When questioned about the issue by Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte during a congressional committee hearing last week, Holder said he was waiting to see “what the state’s position is going to be.”

In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. That focus has been lost, as many on Wall Street have accumulated vast wealth while the middle class falls steadily behind. When regions of Virginia are experiencing more than 21% unemployment and so many working Americans continue to struggle in this economy, it is only just that our leaders protect the interests of America’s working people.

Last week, we received some encouraging news as the Department of Labor announced that the economy added 290,000 jobs in the month of April – 231,000 of them in the private sector. This is the largest number of new jobs in four years and the fourth consecutive month of job growth.

One of my top priorities in Congress has been reducing financial burden on middle- and working-class families during these tough economic times. Last week, USA TODAY reported that Americans paid their lowest level of taxes in 2009 since Harry Truman’s presidency. The news story reported: “Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports.

Traditionally, Congress is expected to agree on a budget for the upcoming fiscal year by April 15th. It is this budget process at the beginning of each year where the decision is made regarding total federal spending for the year. It is the budget that sets the stage for how fiscally responsible government spending will be. Since the passage of the Budget Act of 1974, the House of Representatives has never failed to pass an initial budget to set the spending priorities for the following fiscal year.

Ted Kennedy‘s “True Compass” would be poignant for one fact alone if there wasn’t so much else to recommend it. This Kennedy brother, after all, was the only one who lived long enough to write a memoir.

Pathos and tragedy accompanied every step of success his family ever recorded. For the prominent role they achieved in American history, they paid a very bloody and very sad price.

The oil spill in the Gulf has been consuming the news, and possibly Congress’ attention, so I haven’t seen much lately on the Senate’s efforts on a financial reform bill. Prior to that, a lot of news consisted of “Democrats” accusing Republicans of being in Wall Street’s pocket. Of course, “Democrats” are in Wall Street’s pocket, so maybe they know who their neighbors are.